PSA Dual Auto Grading

[ObanMontecristo]

When sending in modern autos for grading, do you prefer to get dual grading (card grade and an auto grade)?

Just sent in 11 cards, one of which got a 10 on condition but an 8 Auto grade (I have no idea why, I’ll have to look once it’s in hand). The other ten got Auto grades of 10.

Just wondering, for future submissions, if people think it’s even worth the extra money to get that second grade on the auto.

[KGD54]

I am interested to see what people say. I personally think auto grades are pointless. From what i have seen, receiving a 10 grade will add some value but other than that a 9 or lower will not add any value or even take the value down slightly. I personally would like to grade my cards without dual grading. If i have to submit for a dual service then i would submit just for authentic, ideally PSA would grade autos like SGC and put 10 on the label or just authentic- thats what i would like.

[Stech36]

A 9 will drop a psa 10 to a psa 9 price. A psa 9/9 will drop to an 8 price. It’s not worth it unless you’re extremely confident you have a 10 auto AND no what to look for

[Rbradleigh]

Personally I never pay extra to get dual grade on a modern card BUT these are all Topps “Certified authentic.” Now if it was a card I wanted the auto authenticated on that’s different. I also will not pay more to buy a dual slabbed card that’s already certified from Topps nor do I even look to buy a dual slabbed card, zero importance. And I’m likely to avoid purchasing if the slab says “Auto 9.”

So to agree with the poster above, I find submitting for dual grade on modern cards pointless.

[rnocards]

Originally Posted by Rbradleigh

Personally I never pay extra to get dual grade on a modern card BUT these are all Topps “Certified authentic.” Now if it was a card I wanted the auto authenticated on that’s different. I also will not pay more to buy a dual slabbed card that’s already certified from Topps nor do I even look to buy a dual slabbed card, zero importance. And I’m likely to avoid purchasing if the slab says “Auto 9.”

So to agree with the poster above, I find submitting for dual grade on modern cards pointless.

If you see a card with a Topps certified auto, but the slab either does not numerically grade the auto, or it says Auto Auth. However, when you look at the auto, it has streaks and fading, so you know it is a 9 at best. Would you buy such a card?

[Rbradleigh]

Originally Posted by rnocards

If you see a card with a Topps certified auto, but the slab either does not numerically grade the auto, or it says Auto Auth. However, when you look at the auto, it has streaks and fading, so you know it is a 9 at best. Would you buy such a card?

I am cool with the certified auto graded as “authentic,” but what’s the point? PSA happy to collect that extra fee though.
If I see a streaky / sh*tty auto, no I’m not buying it and don’t need a grade on it to tell my eyes otherwise.
At the same time I’m not buying any Jackson Merrill “J” auto regardless if it grades auto “10” because I find it a terrible signature.

[EscapePlan]

I only PC two players so I can recognize their good signatures from their sloppy ones, so the auto has to be among their best to even consider dual grading. I'll also only grade the auto if it's on-card which is a personal rule of mine. I'll usually buy these cards knowing that I'll be grading the auto so I make sure that it looks like a 10 (no skips or unnatural breaks, auto doesn't go off the card, etc.)

When considering if I should grade the card too, I'll only do it if I think it's either a strong 9 or 10. Otherwise, I'd rather grade the auto and just authenticate the card since it's all about the signature for me really.

[ObanMontecristo]

Just got my cards back from PSA- the one I’m talking about is shown in the first photo below- it got a 10 on condition, 8 on the Auto grade.



I think this was the first time I ever used dual grading, so the criteria are fuzzy to me. I wouldn’t say the auto is ‘smudged,’ but I guess I can see how the pen/marker was a little ‘streaky’ on the right half.

In looking around on eBay, I saw that this one (picture below) that got a 10 Auto grade- the auto definitely looks different (the top horizontal line is separate from the rest of the signature). A lot of his autos look like this, although I’ve seen a fair number that look more like mine too. No two autos are technically ‘identical,’ so it would suck if they knock down the grade based on little differences like that- or are they considering the signature on mine ‘sloppy’?



For those with more experience, do you think it was the ‘streaks’ that knocked it down to an 8? Or general sloppiness of the auto? Both? And why knock it down 2 grades? Just wondering - and there’s not a lot written about this.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[90skid]

Personally, I think it's stupid on cards like this. Simply grade the card and skip the auto authentication/grade. If you "really" want PSA to authenticate the auto, then grade the card and leave the auto "AUTH" only.

[rnocards]

It appears that they knocked you for that streak on the right, and that fading in the middle. Maybe that's why it got an 8? I think it should have been limited to a 9, but they are very strict on autos. Beckett probably would have given you a 9.

[towerymt]

Should not have graded that auto (you already know that now).

Anytime you can see white (or the background color) through the ink...don't grade the auto.

My only guess is that two major pen strokes have streaking, so 10 -1 -1 = 8


(click for Large)

[inaka]

Just a heads up, if you're unhappy with the auto grade you can resubmit this to PSA as a reholder. You can just specify in the notes, "Card Grade only, Auto Authentication (no numeric grade)".

The reason I point this out is because PSA/DNA takes forever, but since they actually already graded both the card and the auto, you can bypass PSA/DNA and submit as a reholder to save both time and money if you want:

GEM MINT AUTO 10
AUTO AUTH

Will PSA likely mess this up? Absolutely. But that's what they said when I was in a similar situation.